Sentencing Completed in Taney County Abuse Case

A sentence has been handed down to a person involved in a case of extreme abuse in Taney County.

The full story below by Jason Wert of the Branson Tri-Lakes News:

The tragic tale of extreme abuse in Taney County has come to a close with two people spending the next 10 years in state prison.

Ann Schilling was sentenced on May 31, to 10 years in prison on two counts of Financial Exploitation of an Elderly or Disabled person by Taney County Judge Jeffrey Merrell. Schilling pleaded guilty to the two counts as a part of an agreement with prosecutors to drop multiple other charges related to abuse of her husband and daughter.

Her son, Andrew Vandorn, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on one count of Financial Exploitation of an Elderly or Disabled person. Vandorn pleaded guilty in a separate agreement with prosecutors to drop multiple other charges including rape, sodomy, and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

The 10-year sentences are what Taney County Prosecutor William Duston told Branson Tri-Lakes News he would be seeking in the cases.

Court documents filed in the case had shown both Schilling and Vandorn had been abusing Schilling’s husband and daughter over a period of years. The duo would use the $1,500 a month Schilling’s husband received in Social Security benefits to purchase drugs, while not caring for the man. Officers stated the husband was not fed his diet to control his diabetes, he was not bathed for six to nine months, forced to crawl on floors “covered in feces and cockroaches.”

Emergency personnel found Schilling’s husband comatose with blood sugar too low to be measured and was told he had not been outside the home “for a year” prior to the EMT’s arrival. When the victim woke up at Mercy hospital, he told investigators he was only fed beans and pasta until recently when they fed him candy.

Deputies on the scene noted there was so much trash in the home EMTs were unable to take a gurney inside and had to carry the victim outside for treatment. They stated in court documents the cockroaches were so thick “you could not walk in the home without stepping on one.”

Investigators stated in their probable cause statements when the money ran out from the husband’s Social Security check, Schilling and Vandorn would the her daughter’s $583 a month Social Security payment for drugs, and then force the girl to work as a prostitute when the money ran out.

The victim confirmed to police the abuse, stating sometimes she was raped by 10 men a day.

“It feels like they are trying to just get rid of me to have sex with other guys,” she told investigators in the probable cause statement. “Like trade. Like be a hoe. It’s like I didn’t get no sleep at all last night. After yesterday I feel like someone is going to just come in my room, pull my pants down and just have sex with me.”

She also stated Vandorn was sexually abusing her.

Vandorn had a previous conviction for second degree child molestation for which he was a registered sex offender. He had been sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year in county jail and two years of supervised probation in the case.

The home near Forsyth where the crimes took place has been demolished.